“You don’t build the life you want by saving time. You build the life you want, and then time saves itself.”

This book isn’t just for women (even though we all know that lady bosses are often the busiest)!

Reconsidering how we can “have it all” from the perspective of some of the busiest women in “marquee careers,” this book proposes how we can better manage our time. Instead of looking at our schedule like a looming wall of must-do’s, Vankerkam provides a framework that makes it easier for you to get everything you need to do and want to do done, including reading for 30-minutes a day.

Helpful Hint: You can access Vanderkam’s time makeover guide here for free.

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage.”

We know we said that we curated this list for business leaders, and we did. But this book is for everybody!

If you felt criticized at any point this week–and if you own a small business, we know you did!– this book teaches you to challenge how you interact with your vulnerability so you can set boundaries and take better risks.

For business leaders, in particular, every decision we make can feel like stumbling. Brown encourages us to destigmatize and embrace this vulnerability for what it does: lead us toward greatness.

“What is learned out of necessity is inevitably more powerful than the learning that comes easily.”

Complete disclosure, CO+HOOTS Foundation is run by a #ladyboss who will read (and encourage us to read) anything, and we mean anything, Gladwell writes. But if you’re only going to read one Gladwell book or need somewhere to start, this is it!

Let’s face it, leading a business will some days feel like an impossible feat. This book equips you with invaluable insight on how to win against the Amazons and Walmarts of the world.

Stop by our Foundation Station in the CO+HOOTS Coworking space and chat with us about your favorite business books! We even have an entire library of hand-picked books and resources written with business leaders in mind. And, if you ask nicely, we will probably let you borrow something from our collection.

]]>https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/08/5-must-read-books-for-business-leaders/feed/093803 Key Reasons You Should Sign up for the CLIMB Acceleratorhttps://cohootsfdn.org/2019/08/3-key-reasons-you-should-sign-up-for-the-climb-accelerator/
https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/08/3-key-reasons-you-should-sign-up-for-the-climb-accelerator/#respondWed, 21 Aug 2019 16:26:47 +0000https://cohootsfdn.org/?p=9291Hey Phoenix founders, how’s that startup going? It’s a challenge, right Especially at the beginning… and in spite of all the hard work that lies ahead, the truth is that there are just a few ways for your startup to succeed, and countless ways it can fail. That’s why we’re launching CLIMB, the new accelerator […]

]]>Hey Phoenix founders, how’s that startup going? It’s a challenge, right Especially at the beginning… and in spite of all the hard work that lies ahead, the truth is that there are just a few ways for your startup to succeed, and countless ways it can fail.

That’s why we’re launching CLIMB, the new accelerator program from Tucson and Phoenix-based accelerator Go For Vertical in partnership with The CO+HOOTS Foundation. It’s designed for ideation- and early-stage startups to help them focus on the key things that can make all the difference between success and failure.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn.

Go big or go home. Being outside of Silicon Valley doesn’t permit you to build a startup just for your local market. Startups in places outside of the valley have the same or even greater imperative to develop ideas that scale globally, well beyond their local beginnings. #thinklocalgoglobal

Have a laser-like focus on product.Honestly, startup ideas don’t matter. It’s only what your users think about what you actually deliver and put into their hands that matters. So don’t only figure that out, but make sure that your startup’s business model and technology exactly embody this.

Looking for product/market fit isn’t enough. Instead, you need to go for deep, intrinsic product/stakeholder fit. What does that mean? It means figuring out these three things: exactly who your platform is for, exactly what they need, and exactly how you will deliver it. If you don’t know that, then you can deliver a product that your customers will truly want and deeply value.

There’s much more that you’ll learn in CLIMB, like why agile is probably wrong for your startup, and how you can validate your platform before you even code anything. If you can’t tell already, we’re here to change the way you think about your startup, and to help it succeed.

Have questions? We’re ready to answer them. You can reach out ot us on social media @goforvertical, by email at inquiries@goforvertical.com or at (520) 441-2022.

]]>https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/08/3-key-reasons-you-should-sign-up-for-the-climb-accelerator/feed/09291The Secret To More Successful Marketinghttps://cohootsfdn.org/2019/08/the-secret-to-more-successful-marketing/
https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/08/the-secret-to-more-successful-marketing/#respondTue, 13 Aug 2019 21:58:31 +0000https://cohootsfdn.org/?p=8900The post The Secret To More Successful Marketing appeared first on CO+HOOTS Foundation.
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When you first meet someone, you ask questions, share ideas, make jokes, and tell stories to start building a connection and hopefully set the foundation for a relationship.

Introducing your business works the same way! Marketing campaigns that present a story are consistently more successful than those that don’t because story branding helps your customer build a relationship with your business, even before they buy your product. So, are you ready to tell your brand’s story?

Who are you in your story?

Sure, many campaigns already feature a hero who shows off their product and how this product defeats the villainous pain point, sometimes without even knowing they are. But too often, business leaders feature the wrong hero!

Consider Harry Potter. Harry Potter is the hero who defeats Voldemort, but he probably would have failed had he not met Dumbeldore. Yet despite Dumbeldore’s undeniable importance to the story, he is not the hero.

According to Adam Ward, Vice President of Sales at Raine Digital, “most ineffective content is the effect of the company believing they are the Harry Potter of their marketing campaign.” But unless you are providing your solution for free (a one-time sample does not count), then you are not the hero; you’re the Dumbeldore-figure.

Meet Your Hero

Think about it: your company’s goal is to sell a product. However, Ward asserts that “no consumer wants someone to sell them on something, even though almost all consumers like the act of buying things.” This means that your marketing strategy shouldn’t actively sell your product, but should empower your customers to solve their problems using your solution.

However, to empower your customers, you have to know who they are. Many business leaders make the mistake of assuming they are similar to their ideal customer. But this assumption often leads to content that doesn’t respond well to the current market.

Instead, effective marketing targets consumers in specific areas of the market, such as within a certain generation, residing in a certain area, or facing a similar problem. To target successfully, you need to really understand your customer so you can build a marketing strategy that portrays a hero who empathizes with them now and with who they want to be.

Build Personas

To help you really get to know your customers, Ward suggests building personas. Personas are generalized representations of your ideal customer base, simplified into a semi-fictional character. Developed from recorded trends, personas help you craft a marketing strategy that your customers find relevant and respond positively toward.

And yes, we mean “personas.” Plural. It is unlikely that everyone who buys your product is the same. But, chances are many will share similar pain points, aspirations, or general characteristics. Recognizing these trends allow you to create a handful of personas, each one representing a different segment of your customer base to target.

For each segmented customer type, you should build a unique persona that is:

Accurate

Accuracy is key! Inaccurate personas lead to false understandings of your end-user and tend to create ineffective marketing strategies.

To be as accurate as possible, collect data directly from your existing customers using observations and interviews. This will eliminate the risk of stereotyping and help you to avoid focusing on fringe characteristics that aren’t true for the majority of your customers.

Specific

Specificity provides the foundation of empathy. The more specific your personas are, the more you understand and effectively market to your customer’s pain points.

When you build out each persona, provide demographics that reflect your current customers, including:

Age or generation

Occupation with income

Gender, sexual identity, and sexual preference

Level of education

Goals, motivations and fears

Spending habits

Want a step-by-step guide to building your personas? Check out Ward’s hands-on persona worksheet to clarify who your heros really are and start crafting more relevant marketing strategies!

With 1.4 billion users on Facebook, 500 million on Instagram, and 100 million on Twitter active every month, leveraging social media is crucial to the success of your marketing strategy. Ninety percent of all marketers saw an increase in their business’s exposure when they implemented social media to their business’s strategy. Social media provides personal, one-on-one interaction with each of your users, introducing them to who your brand is.

Josh Munoz, 3rd-degree black belt and Grow Now’s online marketing master, stresses that the high level of engagement and intimacy in each interaction makes social media the ideal space to invest your marketing skills and define your brand’s story. He even warns that “if you don’t provide the market a story to talk about, [the market] will define your story for you.” This would be like relying on your wingman alone to make an incredible first impression. Instead, skip the wingman and define your own story using Munoz’s proven four pillars to effective online marketing:

Pillar 1: Structure

Your structure curates your marketing strategy to your target customer. For example, someone who sells lawn mowers will take a different approach to reach their intended audience than someone who provides photography lessons. By recognizing who your ideal audience is, you can build a lasting connection with an intentional marketing structure.

Who is your business’s ideal audience?

Be as specific as possible when answering this question, focusing on who they are, their demographics, their style, where they go, what technology they own, etc.

Your answers will point you toward the most effective social media platforms to reach your target audience. Compare your target audience to which demographics are active on each platform and focus your strategy on reaching your customers where they are.

How often should you be online?

This isn’t a trick question, and no, the answer is not every waking moment of every day. Being overly present, absent, aggressively posting, or sticking to reacting to others affects the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.

How often doesn’t only refer to the number of times you post a week (although, Munoz does emphasize the value of investing in a cost-effective automation tool like Buffer to make posting consistently easier), but how often you engage overall.

What content does your audience want?

To increase engagement, your brand must deliver consistent content that your audience wants and needs. This could be anything from digestible educational resources to a reflection of your audience’s ideal depending on your product and ideal audience.

Research what your competition produces and communicate directly with your target audience when curating content. Effective content is an ongoing experiment, and tracking analytics validates whether you are making the right pivots to your marketing structure.

Pillar 2: Emotion

Munoz keeps it simple for this one: “facts tell, stories sell.”

Content that engages emotion outperforms other content on nearly every metric, including (but not limited to) shares, click-throughs, profit, and revenue. One research study shows that a strong emotional response to content or branding substantially increases the likelihood that a lead will purchase the product.

Relate To Your Audience

Evoking an emotional response starts with knowing what your audience is talking about and experiencing.

Keep tabs on current trends among your audience, even if these trends don’t immediately relate to your business, and naturally insert your brand in the conversation. This doesn’t mean force yourself in, but generate content that spoofs a hit television series or collaborate with an already respected name.

Seriously, the key to this is to be yourself and have fun! Communicating your brand through what your target audience is already familiar with establishes relevancy while highlighting your brand’s unique personality.

Incorporate Storytelling

TRY THIS: Feature an empowering story about individuals positively impacted by your product. Munoz explains that stories are more likely to inspire action because they engage the senses and evoke emotions.

Create 5-Star Reviews

You’ve dedicated so much to create an incredible customer experience. Provide your customers with a space to share these experiences. Whether in the comments below your social media or on your product page, encourage your audience to rave publically about how incredible your business is!

Pillar 3: Knowledge

Set your business apart by sharing your deep understanding of your industry! Customers gravitate toward brands that add value and speak to their pain points without condescending to their perspectives or experiences. Studies show that businesses that assume customers don’t understand their business or take time to educate their audience are ten times more likely to lose sales.

Add Value

Add value to your audience by teaching what you know.

In a hyper-saturated market, insightful social media posts, blogs offering tips on your product, and how-to educational videos can be the factors that separate you from your competition. Value adding works because it demonstrates to your target audience that you understand who they are and what they need.

Speak To Their Pain Points

TRY THIS: Host a live Q & A on social media. Not only does this engage your following, but it provides insight on what content your target audience wants. Your answers produce on-the-spot content curated to their pain-points, which you can then easily and quickly transcribe into a blog post or youtube video.

Consider these questions when drafting a message to establish your legacy: Is your work positively changing the world for future generations? How many individuals does your work impact? How long will your impact affect these individuals?

Create Return Customers

Whether this is a link to follow your social media pages or a pop-up window to subscribe to your monthly newsletter, create a space on your website to connect with customers after they visit your website.

Then, reach out. Following up with potential leads sends them down the funnel, creating return customers and setting the foundation for your legacy.

Generate Referrals

The customer base you’ve already built is instrumental in generating referrals and growing your business. And although old fashioned word of mouth referrals are always appreciated, social media has become the most powerful tool for reaching new audiences.

TRY THIS: Offer incentives to your social media followers who introduce your brand to their networks. Sometimes all it takes is a “follow and repost to win” giveaway to grow your following, reach new spheres, and gain new customers.

Become An Authority

Think of this as your version of the “three in four dentists recommend our brand of toothpaste.”

Identify explicitly what pressing problem you solve and why your solution matters. Brands establish authority by measuring and reporting key metrics of their business and industry. These metrics demonstrate how well your solution works, who it helps, and how this impact continues to increase. In other words, these metrics prove that you are changing the world and establish why you’ve earned your legacy.

Want more resources to ensure you reach the right customers with Munoz’s four pillars? Join us this July for our MidWeek MindTweak workshops in regards to process and operations.

]]>https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/06/4-pillars-of-a-black-belt-online-marketer/feed/06565Make More Time for Your Businesshttps://cohootsfdn.org/2019/05/make-more-time-for-your-business/
https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/05/make-more-time-for-your-business/#respondThu, 23 May 2019 23:29:31 +0000https://cohootsfdn.org/?p=5717The post Make More Time for Your Business appeared first on CO+HOOTS Foundation.
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Feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? Does everything seem like the priority? Do you constantly feel tired and overwhelmed? According to Carla Reeves, #ladyboss and productivity guru, you probably have all the time you need if you spend it a little differently.

Time, like anything else, is a resource you invest into your business. With each 24-hour day, you have complete control over where, when and how much time you invest in each aspect of your day, your business included. So, are you ready to get the time you thought you lost back? Here’s how she helps people reclaim their time, be more productive, and get everything done.

Thriving or Simply Surviving?

When people admit that they don’t have enough time, it is less about their schedule and more about an outdated approach. In the early 20th century, work culture invested in the idea that staying busy equates to success. Today, we see the remnants despite this approach proving time and time again to be unsuccessful.

Entrepreneurs who earn “the busy badge,” as Reeves refers to it, often find themselves wrestling with a constant and relentless sense of overwhelm which can lead them to forget the smaller tasks or forgo taking care of their general wellbeing. However, this approach rarely cultivates long-term, sustainable success and wares on the individual as time goes on.

Step one: Tell yourself a story about time. Write it in your journal, tape yourself on your phone, but record your story somewhere. You will need to revisit it.

Step two: Look back at your story and answer:

Who or what is time? Is time the hero? The villain? A natural force like the weather?

How does time change where your story goes?

What is going on with time in the beginning? At the end?

How does time evolve throughout the story?

Step three: According to Reeves, “your thinking is the lens through which you experience life,” meaning how your character experiences and interacts with time is a direct, subconscious representation of you feel about time. Ask yourself:

What does my story reveal about my relationship with time?

How does my story impact my actions?

Does this relationship with time encourage me to multitask, rather than monotask?

What kind of results do I see on my tasks?

Stop Earning Your “Busy Badge”Time For A Better Approach

Trade up your thinking from no time to more time. Somewhere in your day, there was a time you could have completed a task, or at least made a serious effort at it if you set aside your overwhelm and got to work. Reeves offers the reminder: “Trust that you’ll have all the time you need because you have more than enough if you invest it right.”

Rank Your Priorities

Ask yourself what the top three tasks you need to achieve today are. Do you need to accomplish all these tasks by the end of the day or can some of them wait until tomorrow? Anything that can’t wait, schedule time into your day for. Scheduling out those critical tasks will create a clear vision of what are the priorities and help you manage your stress.

Everything that doesn’t need immediate attention should wait until after the scheduled tasks are complete, even if this means putting them off a couple of days. These are the things that can rest on the back burner for a little while without starting fires. Keep a running to-do list with the tasks you need to do, but don’t realize there is no need to stress if they wait until tomorrow, later this week or the end of the month as long as you get it done. If you have extra time at the end of the day, getting going on this list.

Stop Losing Time By The Seconds

Recognize your mental energy leaks. We all have them. Are you managing other people’s lives? Mediating other people’s problems? Worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet? Constantly checking social media or email to ensure you haven’t missed anything?

Regardless of the source, these moments redirect energy that would be more productive elsewhere away from what needs to be done. That is not to say never tend to others or check your social media. But knowing when is the best time for each of these will promote productivity.

Reeves suggests using a timer to remind yourself when you need to move on to your next task, whether the task is checking your email, calling your mom or taking a quick emotional break. Alarms tend to ground you at the moment and direct your mental energy toward why you set it in the first place. An alarm set to tell you to move on to the next task will prevent you from spending too much time on any one task and alleviate that feeling that you need to check the time.

You have enough time to do everything if you invest your time smartly. There’s no need to take on extra work, especially when it distracts from priorities like your family, your wellbeing, or the success of your business. Instead, implement your results from Reeve’s exercise and gain 15-minutes back for your business every day.

]]>https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/05/make-more-time-for-your-business/feed/05717Engineering Entrepreneurial Successhttps://cohootsfdn.org/2019/05/engineering-entrepreneurial-success/
https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/05/engineering-entrepreneurial-success/#respondFri, 10 May 2019 19:40:25 +0000https://cohootsfdn.org/?p=5693What resources does an entrepreneur need to ensure a positive impact? The most common answers are social capital, education, investment, and inspiration. Although these are crucial for positioning any venture to succeed, these alone, even in combination, do not guarantee success. According to Sahil Saini, founder of the relationship-driven digital agency AKOS, the most critical […]

]]>What resources does an entrepreneur need to ensure a positive impact? The most common answers are social capital, education, investment, and inspiration. Although these are crucial for positioning any venture to succeed, these alone, even in combination, do not guarantee success. According to Sahil Saini, founder of the relationship-driven digital agency AKOS, the most critical resource that drove him to succeed was one that often gets overlooked: community.

An Almost Overnight Success

Saini didn’t plan a future in website design and development but turned to it when the opportunity arose while he was still trying to determine his next move. Starting with websites for local businesses and churches at an average of $200 for about 50 hours of work, Saini was barely making minimum wage. By budgeting, endless support from his family and the determination to continue learning, he “fell in love with the creativity, design, and problem-solving aspects of software development.”

As Saini gained experience, he attracted larger clients. His workload increased until finally, AKOS needed to grow to meet the demand. In three years, what started as one man working on one-off projects for small businesses was onboarding new team members. However, even as quickly as AKOS was growing before, with the growth of the community, AKOS almost instantly tripled in size, grew four times in revenue and was working with organizations around the world.

Saini marks this point as the beginning of his success. From here, all the opportunities, lessons learned and skills acquired he attributes to the ongoing and endless support he receives from his Arizona entrepreneurial community. He notes that when his organization first started growing, it was just him, but it wasn’t until he connected with like-minded entrepreneurs, Garrett Miller and Daniel Ramirez, who helped settle AKOS in the CO+Community that “AKOS was able to evolve.”

CO+Community

So what exactly is an entrepreneurial community? An entrepreneurial community is a support system of like-minded entrepreneurs who actively promote your wellbeing and your venture’s success. When backed by this community, you nurture relationships with individuals who recognize the potential of your innovations and orient you in the direction of success. In other words, your entrepreneurial community is the ultimate resource because these are the people who will help you secure all those other resources you already recognize you need, including social capital, education, investments or inspiration.

When reflecting on the impact his community had on him, Saini said: “I wish I knew about a community like CO+HOOTS Foundation back in 2010. I would have moved to Phoenix a lot sooner, and I would have joined CO+HOOTS a lot sooner. CO+Community and the resources provided within it were perfect for me and always there when I needed them. Growing and building an agency like AKOS was not even a dream back then, but being around people who believed in me made me realize that my dreams were short of my reality– so I stopped dreaming and just got to work.”

Connect With Your AZ Entrepreneurial Community

We know you’re probably asking by now, “So how do I connect with my entrepreneurial community, anyway?”

For all Arizona entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs who happen to be passing through Arizona, connect with your entrepreneurial community at the Foundation Station, located in the nest of CO+HOOTS Phoenix. The Foundation Station always offers an empathetic ear (which is sometimes all you need as an entrepreneur), introductions to fellow entrepreneurs in the community, endless cups of coffee, and access to a plethora of free resources to support your entrepreneurial journey.

We’ve spent years collecting resources, ranging from finances to administration to emotional support to build a stronger, more inclusive entrepreneurial community. Any and all of these resources are available to you for free, so stop by today, say hi, ask questions, complain about your challenges or rave about your successes. But come introduce yourself to the community that is sure to become your most valuable resource!

]]>https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/05/engineering-entrepreneurial-success/feed/056938 Tips for OFFPITCH DOMINATION (2019)https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/05/8-tips-for-offpitch-domination-2019/
https://cohootsfdn.org/2019/05/8-tips-for-offpitch-domination-2019/#respondFri, 03 May 2019 21:35:53 +0000https://cohootsfdn.org/?p=5635OFFPITCH invites the Valley’s coolest and most respected leaders to make complete fools of themselves onstage, embrace the spirit of the Wild, Wild West, and mouth the words to your favorite party songs. But there’s a catch — those performing must bring their A-Game. To do so, you have to promote the hell out of […]

]]>OFFPITCH invites the Valley’s coolest and most respected leaders to make complete fools of themselves onstage, embrace the spirit of the Wild, Wild West, and mouth the words to your favorite party songs.

But there’s a catch — those performing must bring their A-Game. To do so, you have to promote the hell out of your OFFPITCH squad! Only eight teams will be selected for this honor, so it’s safe to say that the competition is steep. The following is a list of tips and tricks designed to make sure you and your team have the greatest chance of participating!

Sell yourself! Create videos and fun teasers, then share them with your followers to get people excited about how awesome you are! Don’t forget to link back to your team’s voting site!

MAKE SURE YOU USE #colipsync19 TO HELP VOTERS FIND YOU!

Go wild. This event is the opposite of an office meeting. The more fun our followers know you’re having, the more likely they will be to vote, and the more likely you will be to win!

The competition is steep, so scope it out by viewing these videos from contenders from years past:

This is a lip sync championship, after all, so add some fun of your own! The more creative you are, the more voters will see you and say: “Damn, what an incredible looking team! Look at those costumes, look at those graphics. They look like the real deal, I want to see them perform at the Crescent Ballroom.” Trust us, your cool factor is dependent on your originality factor!

BE BRAVE! We already know how awesome you are, so show the world! Have a blast!

Join us at the Crescent Ballroom on September 6, and may the best Lip Syncers win!

Our #OpportunityAZ campaign has been a success with 7 Pop-Up Parties celebrating entrepreneurs we love, tons of gratitude posts and over $5,600 raised to ensure Equity through Entrepreneurship. But at CO+HOOTS Foundation, #GivingTuesday is less about how much we raised (although we always appreciate your generous financial support) and more about highlighting the amazing individuals within our community, including the lady boss behind Candoable.

Have You Met Lisa Dalton?

Not yet? Let us introduce you to the innovative force that is Lisa Dalton, inventor of Cando labels and CEO of Candoable. Her reusable semi-circular plastic labels slide onto containers, with braille molded into the front face and engraved text on the inner face to help users quickly identify goods in the pantry. Now on the market, her innovative solution overcomes an everyday obstacle for 285 million visually impaired individuals worldwide.

A custom brick maker by trade, Dalton lost her corporate job after a stroke in 2015 weakened her fine motor skills and started her first entrepreneurial venture, The Brickerie, during her rehabilitation. Searching to expand her work as a brickmaker, the innovator joined Gangplank, a community-driven coworking and makerspace in Queen Creek, where she found her passion for 3D printing and was inspired to create Cando labels.

Yes Can Do

At Gangplank, Dalton met and started dating Bryan, “a busy single dad, Ph.D. student, and software engineer” who lost his sight after a motorcycle accident at 18. One day, when trying to help him write a grocery list, Dalton shuffled the cans around in his pantry to determine what he already had. What she didn’t realize was that moving anything in the pantry scrambled the entire memorization-based system which allowed him to tell a can of green beans from a can of chili. Trying to amend her mistake, Dalton researched what other systems might be easier for Bryan to implement, realizing the only systems available were single-use, time-consuming and often expensive.

Dalton became determined to invent a system which would overcome this “unnecessary limitation to independence that Bryan, and others who are visually impaired, face every day.” After several iterations, Dalton printed the first set of Cando labels, an apology gift for ruining the organization in Bryan’s pantry which simultaneously disrupted a barren innovation environment.

Just Getting Started

After Dalton’s first full set of Candos were successfully incorporated into Bryan’s kitchen, her passion became sharing her innovation with the visually impaired community. Almost immediately, Cando labels received positive responses from users. While displaying her prototypes at the National Federation of the Blind of Arizona state convention, two participants even insisted they buy the display labels for their own kitchens. Dalton remembers, “witnessing their excitement over Candos, and hearing from so many people how overdue they felt they were, was pretty dang electrifying.”

Candos are already being used in home kitchens, and will soon be labeling the fridges and pantries in training kitchens and classrooms at SAAVI Services for the Blind in Phoenix. Several designs are now available, including labels for food cans, beverages, and medicine bottles. As her business grows, Dalton is “excited to develop the labels further, to expand the types of labels offered and to continue working to get them in the hands of those who need them.”

By supporting CO+HOOTS Foundation, you support the entrepreneurs in Arizona like Lisa Dalton, who make incredible strides toward overcoming pressing problems. This giving season, give back and celebrate entrepreneurs who improve our community because supporting local entrepreneurs builds opportunity for everyone in Arizona.

OFFPITCH invites the Valley’s coolest and most respected leaders to make complete fools of themselves onstage, get decked out in ‘80s bling, and mouth the words to some of the best party songs of the millenia. But there’s a catch — those performing must bring their A-Game. To do so, you have to promote the heck out of your OFFPITCH squad! Only eight teams will be selected for this honor, so it’s safe to say that the competition is steep. Not to mention last year really set the bar!

This is a lip sync championship, after all, so add some fun of your own! The more creative you are, the more voters will see you and say: “Damn, what an incredible looking team! Look at those costumes, look at those graphics. They look like the real deal, I want to see them perform at the Crescent Ballroom.” Trust us, your cool factor is dependent on your originality factor!

BE BRAVE! We already know how awesome you are, so show the world! Have a blast!

Join us at the Crescent Ballroom on August 30, and may the best Lip Syncers win!

Each year, CO+HOOTS Foundation brings together the #yesphx business community for a spectacular event filled with memorable performances. On September 8, beginning at 6:30 pm, we will kick off the night by watching the most creative and innovative companies in Phoenix compete to become Lip Sync Champion!

This battle of the bold is bound to be entertaining. Each team competes for best performance and also for most funds raised! All proceeds will go toward supporting young entrepreneurs through the CO+HOOTS Foundation. Join us for an unforgettable night with outstanding performers who are dying to share their mad skills and take home the glory!

CO+HOOTS Foundation Board Co-Chair Jenny Poon Tells us more about what this event means to her.

Amanda: This is the 3rd Annual Lip Sync Battle, I’d love to hear more about how this tradition got started?!

Jenny: Well, it all started with the voices in my head. … Kidddddiiinnnnggggg! … Three years ago, we wanted to do something to celebrate Phoenix Councilmember Daniel Valenzuela’s birthday. He had been such a great resource for us as well as other individuals, organizations and companies in the Phoenix entrepreneurial and startup community. Here was a politician who didn’t act like one and really saw the value in our community in helping Phoenix grow. We really wanted to do something different, something no one else has done. Odeen (my husband) and I always enjoyed the Lip Sync Battles on Jim Fallon’s show. So it was a no brainer for us to gather other people in our community to battle it out via wacky lip sync performances to celebrate Daniel.

A: The winning team was Great Hearts Academy last year, what team do you think will take home the Championship THIS year?

Jenny: Well, CO+HOOTS can never win the competition, even though we always have the best performance. OK, that’s enough for my comedic career. I’m putting my (fake) money on Right This Minute/FOX team of Heather Lynn Herr and Jeff Moriarty. Heather can dance circles around you and Jeff is a genius. No pressure guys!

Amanda: What is your favorite thing about the Annual Lip Sync Battle?

Jenny: Getting all of these professionals together in one room to just let loose and have fun. We are all so go-go-go during the week (and many weekends) that it’s hard to schedule time to just enjoy the company of like-minded people without our work life getting in the way. And because this is a lip syncing-dancing event, you get people out of their comfort zone … or you learn people’s hidden talents!

Amanda: What makes this year unique to the years prior?

Jenny: We are tripling down on making this Lip Sync Battle our primary event every year for the CO+HOOTS Foundation. To help raise funds to support the Foundation, its mission to provide equitable opportunity to entrepreneurship and our youth entrepreneurship program. All proceeds from the event will go toward benefitting that program.

Amanda: So all proceeds from the event will go to young entrepreneurs? Very cool! Are there any surprises in store for those attending?

Jenny: Well, we might get several members of Phoenix City Council to get on stage if we hit our fundraising goals, including Mayor Greg Stanton! It’s going to be bonkers!

Amanda: Is this event public? How can people sign up for this?

Jenny: They can sign up online through our events page and yes — everyone can join the fun!

Amanda: Where is it located?

Jenny: It will be held at the FOUND:RE Hotel, 1100 N Central Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85003 on September 8, 2017, from 6:30- 9:30 pm!

Jenny: First, they can get tickets to the Lip Sync Battle at bit.ly/colipsync as there will be plenty of opportunities to learn about the Foundation and our youth entrepreneurship program. They can also visit our website cohootsfdn.com where there will be ways to contact us for any opportunities to get involved.

WHY I SUPPORT THE CO+HOOTS FOUNDATION — AMANDA

When I volunteered for Youth StartUp Weekend at the CO+HOOTS Foundation, I had a glimpse into our children’s future. I witnessed each student pitching their ideas, creating products, and learning how to become a business owner! Each going through their own transformation and realizing how confident they could be. This kind of thing is exactly why I admire and respect Jenny and Odeen at the CO+HOOTS Foundation. They think about the best ways to build community, communication, and a safe place to be yourself. Which is why I’d love for you to get to know them, and the community, at the 3rd Annual Lip Sync Battle. Don’t FOMO! We will be having a blast with talented people for a great cause.

The CO+HOOTS Foundation is an Arizona non-profit 501(c)(3) whose mission is to influence and support community growth by engaging the power of co-workers, independent contractors, and small business. We provide pro bono service, education and leadership to CO+WORK, CO+BUILD and CO+CHANGE the world.